


what the ocean drags down

by WhirlyBird70



Category: One Piece
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Monster trio fluff, Nightmares, Reference to Major Character Death (Ace), Suspense, Temporary Character Death, fears, i guess??, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23502085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhirlyBird70/pseuds/WhirlyBird70
Summary: “Zoro!” The reindeer shouts, and uh oh that’s his scolding voice. What did Zoro do now?! “Where have you been? I need to check you over I want to make sure cutting that rock did nothing!”“What do you mean, you’ve been with me the entire-“Wait.Had Chopper been with him? Out on deck?Zoro can’t recall.“I don’t care, sit down!” Chopper gives him the eyes, and dimly worried, Zoro acquiesces to his pleas.It’s nothing, surely,he thinks, accepting the drink from Sanji and belatedly (uncaringly) realizing this is nothing like him to be so nonchalant about a lack of skill.It’s nothing at all.Hehehehe!-The Monster Trio arrive on a strange island.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Luffy & Roronoa Zoro, Monkey D. Luffy & Vinsmoke Sanji, Mugiwara Kaizoku | Straw Hat Pirates - Relationship, Roronoa Zoro & Vinsmoke Sanji
Comments: 31
Kudos: 204





	what the ocean drags down

If he had to pinpoint a moment it all began, Sanji would say it was three days before _that_ island, when he had woken up in the middle of the night to a nightmare -

( _Along on a rock with his hands bleeding out and blood on his face, sticky behind the metal mask that locked him in with all his fears all of them all of them and oh, were those bones he could feel along his sides?)_

And gone down to the kitchen to fix a snack to calm his nerves.

Nightmares were nothing new, of course. All the straw hats had them, at one time or another. A pirate’s life is rarely free of danger, and before this crew of dreams they weren’t always living the happiest of lives.

Seeing both Zoro and Luffy in the kitchen, however, is new.

Zoro is sitting on the floor in the galley corner, tense and hands white-knuckled around the bottle in his hands. He seems high strung, though his swords are laid a careful distance away as if he doesn’t want to reach for them accidentally. His one eye flashes dimly in the light, as if he’s shaken and wary.

Sanji has never seen him look like this, save for the few times he had thought a crew member had died.

( _Luffy shot in the back and not getting up, the wretched screaming of their captain’s name wrenching from Zoro’s throat-)_

Luffy, next to him, is the exact opposite. Instead of sitting tall and wary, he is hunched and trembling minutely. He looks small, in a way Sanji has almost never associated with their exuberant captain and future king. His hat is laid low over his face as he looks with his head down between his knees. He's slouching against Zoro, as if trying to keep quiet and on the lookout for someone.

As if to remind himself that he’s not alone.

(After their two years of training, it had been a month before Luffy decided that he could sleep in his own bed. He had been clingy (they all had been) and in quiet moments he had admitted that Rayleigh had left him with just the animals for the remaining six months of his training.

“It’s okay!” Luffy had said. “It was just like when Ace had left to go sea!” His brother’s name hadn’t cracked in his mouth. His captain is _strong._ “I was alone cause I had to get stronger, so I couldn’t visit the bandits or Makino or anyone! But it’s okay this time, because I knew I had you guys!”

Why did he always have to be alone when it was worse than being _hurt_?)

“Hey knuckleheads,” Sanji starts, voice soft. He knows not to startle them despite the newness of the situation. “Want something to eat?”

Luffy peeks up from under his hat, revealing one wet eye, and mumbles _meat._ He’s not getting some, because they _do_ have to ration it and Sanji is checking storage tomorrow, but he will get something to help him sleep. Zoro grunts, his one eye finally focusing in and his body becoming a little less wired. He leans into Luffy more, letting his fingers relax from their tight hold on the neck of the bottle.

Sanji takes that as a yes, and pretends not to notice the way Zoro’s eye zeroes in his trembling fingers and the way Luffy’s eyes don’t but he notices the shaking anyway, uncurling from his ball at the sense of pain in his crew.

Sanji offers him a slight smile, and turns on the stove to a low simmer. Some cinnamon tea to help sleep, and some leftover onigiri from before dinner (because, with Luffy, there was never any leftovers _after_ dinner) would be a good start. Zoro grunts again and stands up, offering a hand to Luffy before grabbing his swords and sliding into the booth.

The kitchen is quiet, save for the waves crashing against the side of the ship. Robin is on watch, isn’t she? Or were they trying out Franky’s new automated watch system?

Ah. Whatever. Sanji will check once he gets these two (and himself) sorted out.

By the time the tea is done and the onigiri prepped, his hands have stopped shaking. Zoro is slumped into Luffy’s shoulder, and the captain himself has buried his face into crossed arms at the table. His hat is now falling gently on his back, making something in Sanji calm.

(Luffy only ever pulls the hat over his eyes if he’s far too angry to think, has a point to make, or is making an expression (tears, fear, Sanji never knows) that he doesn’t want his crew to see.)

Sanji slides the tea and onigiri in front of them both, taking care to make sure the food lands more on Zoro’s side so he has a better chance of biting into it before Luffy gets his hands on it. He then takes a place to Luffy’s left, where he can slump into him as well, his own cup warming his hands.

He takes a breath of the steam coming off it, and takes a sip, gently smiling at the pleased sound Luffy makes as he does the same.

The temptation to speak, to ask what brought them to the kitchen is slowly creeping in, but it can wait.

The kitchen at night, when there is no storm or pressing adventure, is a place for quiet and warmth. No nightmares, no shaking hands or tense shoulders, can find them here with a warm drink between their hands.

Eventually, Luffy is the first to doze off, onigiri eaten (but not entirely – worrying) and drink all but gone. He slumps into Zoro who then carries him to the bench behind them, Sanji following, so that Luffy’s stretched out, head in Zoro’s lap and his legs thrown over Sanji’s. A calloused hand makes its way through Luffy’s hair as Zoro recounts the night, breaking the silence.

“I… had a dream.” He begins, voice low and soft. “Wasn’t a good one.” A grimace but no elaboration. That’s okay – Sanji didn’t really expect Zoro too. “Shook me up a bit. Went in here to get a drink and found Luffy on the ground where we were. I don’t know how long he was there, but I think it had been awhile. When I came in he kind of … jumped? Like he didn’t expect me, which was odd, but I couldn’t really feel him either.”

Sanji was a smart man. He could connect the dots – either something had shaken Luffy and Zoro so bad that their observation haki wasn’t focused (Unlikely, considering they primarily used it in battle) or something more was going on…

He couldn’t remember if he had sensed them before entering the kitchen anyway.

Sanji hums and takes their cups away, gently moving Luffy legs first, as Zoro keeps talking.

“He wasn’t doing so good. I think he’s been up most of the night. Don’t know what woke him but… it couldn’t have been good.”

“A dream you think?”

“Maybe. You?”

“Had one too. You sleeping here?”

“Might as well. Sun rise is in an hour unless the weather wants to fuck with us.”

“Mmhm.” Sanji moves back to his old position, this time carrying a blanket. Zoro helps him stretch over the three of them, tucking it gently under their captain’s head.

It may be odd for all of them to be here at once, but nightmares and bad nights were nothing new to all of them. They were crew after all. Family. They helped each other. And truth be told, Zoro and Sanji didn’t always argue.

“Night, Shit Cook.”

“Night, Moss Face.”

Well. Almost.

(If Sanji had been any more awake and not thinking about being along and starving on a rock, perhaps he would have taken notice of the shift in the breeze, the slight lilt of the ship as their observation haki was suppressed under the guise of shaking nightmares. Perhaps he would have noticed the change in their course or the fog creeping in.

But he didn’t.

And that’s when it started.

_Come to me, little pirates-)_

_-_

Sanji woke to Nami shaking him awake. A heavenly sight, but an odd one, because he was usually the first up for meal prep.

“Nami-swan?” He asked, tiredly yawning. A part of him registered Luffy’s legs still across his, and the green head of hair his faced was smashed into. The moss-head must have leant over to use Sanji’s shoulder as a pillow while he slept, the bastard.

“Sanji you alright?”

“’Mm fine, Nami-dear.” He blinked the tiredness from his eyes, ready to focus on the _wonderful_ light of his life. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing… you just slept past sunrise that’s all. Robin and Usopp made pancakes for everyone, but you’re going to have to make them for Luffy and Zoro and you. We aren’t skilled enough to keep up with Luffy’s appetite.”

Sanji’s eyes _snapped_ open. He _what_?!

He took a look around, noting the table being cleaned up by a multitude of limbs and the faint smell of pancakes in the air. The sun was gently shining through the portholes, the brightness signifying it was _well_ past the morning rush.

And Sanji had slept through it.

Hell, _Luffy_ had slept through it if the weight on his lap was any indication.

“I’m sorry, you should have woken me up, I should have done that –“

“It’s okay Sanji. We figured if you weren’t up, and _Luffy_ wasn’t going for our meals, then you three needed the rest… what happened?”

Sanji shrugs, getting up carefully and stretching. “I had a nightmare and woke up, came in here and found Zoro and Luffy, who apparently had the same thing. We drank the usual and had a bite to eat then fell asleep.”

No need to worry Nami about the lapse in haki. While they were in the process of teaching the crew armament and observation, they didn’t have to be concerned of what was going on with those in control of it.

Not yet at least.

Nami still looks concerned. Sanji brushes it off by waking Zoro with a kick to the head.

“Oi. Shithead. I’m making breakfast. You gonna get up or what?”

“Bastard, what’d you do that for?”

“You getting up or what?”

“Mmhm?” Luffy mumbles sitting up and narrowly missing the second foot that is flung at Zoro’s head, blocked with a sheathed Sandai Kitetsu. “Wassgoing on?”

“Breakfast, Luffy. You slept through it.” Nami levels him with a look before shaking her head at his panicked response.

“WHAT!? BREAKFAST? SANJI! FOOD!”

Luffy doesn’t miss this kick.

“Hold your horses shitty captain, it’ll be ready in five minutes.” Sanji relaxes his leg and turns to the kitchen. Least Luffy’s more energetic now. And by Zoro’s wheezing complaints, he’s less conscious of where he’s stepping too.

Just like normal.

( _Flash of vibrant pink in the corner of his eye, a skeleton, a man with no legs in the corner of the room-)_

Sanji turns and its just Chopper and Brook singing outside, Franky tinkering on deck viewed through the door Nami just walked out of.

It’s nothing, surely.

Right?

-

Sanji volunteers to take Usopp’s place for the first half of night watch. He’s not going to get any sleep anyway, so why not take the place of his crewmate and let him rest?

The crow’s nest is warm at night, though the outside sea is foggy and cold. Shadows dance across the deck in the soft moonlight and breeze, a calm unusual to the Grand Line.

It doesn’t help Sanji’s nerves.

He’s sitting on the window edge, cupping a mug of tea in his hands, blanket wrapped around him. Paranoia has been following him all day, despite the fact that he checked the food stores and they have enough to feed Luffy eight meals a day for two weeks. They are fine, and the sea is flooding with food.

His crew won’t starve.

So why does he feel like they might?

(Why does he feel like his former siblings are around every corner?)

Is he _this_ shaken up by that nightmare last night?

**_Hehehehe_ ** _~_

_What the fuck was that._

Sanji stands to his feet and looks out the window.

There’s nothing there, and nothing hiding in the shadows of the crows next.

Everything’s normal.

His observation haki – his observation haki _seems_ fine.

Maybe he should have taken the chance to rest.

Maybe.

Sanji looks out the window, to the rising moon, and decides he can wake Zoro for his turn on watch.

Climbing down the crow’s nest and into the galley, he misses the ship rocking again, sharper this time. He misses the shadows crawling across the deck like mischievous devil children, with holes in their chests and limbs, and the fog that rolls across the deck once in a resounding breath.

Sanji turns his head once, but the view is silent and empy

He continues on, shakes Zoro non-too-gently awake, and collapses in his bed. Time to sleep…

Sanji never feels the devil sink into his skin

(but it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.)

He falls into a fitful rest, a smile haunting his lips.

_(It won’t be there for long!)_

_-_

Zoro has never been one to sleep.

Let’s rephrase that.

Zoro has never been one to sleep when his crew is in _true_ danger. Since he has no problem falling to sleep, he’s sure that there’s no danger here, but he can’t help but be unsure.

The ship has been… off these past few days. Laughter chimes in his ear when the deck is empty, and shadows seem to be full of things he must protect against. Nothings ever there, but it keeps dragging him back to that first night.

When Luffy had been shaking in the kitchen, and Zoro hadn’t noticed him get up.

(The ero-cook’s observation haki is the best out of all of them, though he’s sure once Usopp gets his act together that will change, but he hadn’t noticed either. Luffy is either suppressing his presence (a skill of the conquering king, but _damnit, Luffy, we’re your crew!)_ or somethings wrong.

Zoro hopes it’s the former)

The rest of the crew doesn’t seem to notice anything’s off, beyond the usual bout of nightmares. They don’t notice Zoro’s tenseness or Sanji’s wariness, or Luffy’s almost apathy to the world around him. The crew _does_ take note of the shadows slowly growing under all three of their eyes, and takes them off the watch rotation, but otherwise do not comment.

Nami probably knows something, as does Robin with her damn eyes, but that’s about it.

Hopefully it is nothing, and Zoro can actually _sleep_ without worrying that his crew is –

_(falling down down down, dead and dreamless, smiling gently at him – won’t you help Zoro? Why weren’t you there Zoro?)_

In danger.

Ah. Well. Might as well sleep. He’s done his training for the day, Luffy joining him (odd – Luffy prefers his own kind of training to lifting weights), so now he can nap by the figurehead.

A nice… long... nap….

-

He awakes to darkness.

Did he sleep through the day again? No – this is something different.

Something skitters across the deck – Zoro reaches for his swords only to find empty air.

_Wha-_

This isn’t Sunny’s deck.

This isn’t his home. His _crew’s_ home.

Where is his crew?

(Did they get lost?)

A voice drifts in the breeze, eerily similar to a young child cry.

_Zo-ro, Zo-ro, Zo-ro, Zo-ro… Where were you Zoro?_

There’s a pawprint in front of him, big and painful and his _captain, Luffy_ , is inside oh _hell_

His crew is here now, and they are all _dead_ because he wasn’t paying attention, god damnit, _no –_ What kind of hell scape is this?

“Zoro.” The girls voice, high and reedy, is solid now. He turns his face to the left.

_Kuina._

A bloody sword is held to her throat. _Wado-_

“We weren’t strong enough Zoro.” The blade digs in and –

_“NO!”_

Zoro wakes to red and wetness on his cheeks.

_Kuina, no, his crew dead, Luffy –_

Luffy’s sitting on his lap right in front him. He’s the red. The wetness on his face isn’t blood but the salty sea spray and (maybe) some tears, slipping down his eyes. He can’t tell.

He hopes Luffy can’t tell.

“Zoro? You okay?”

“Ye-yeah. I am.” _I will be_.

His captain sounds tired. (Zoro sounds tired.) His eyes are tired too. (So are Zoro’s. And the Shit Cook’s.) Nightmares? (A reoccurring theme.)

Luffy trusts him, and _knows_ him in a way that few don’t, so he accepts Zoro’s truth and settles back down. A rubbery hand slaps at Zoro’s face.

“Nami says there’s gonna be an island tomorrow but there’s also going to be a storm tonight so she doesn’t know if there is _actually_ going to be an island. There’s no maps of it either, so Nami’s excited.”

Zoro raises an eyebrow and looks around deck. Huh. Usopp and Copper are already climbing the rigging to get ready to pull the sails down. It’s a wonder why the witch hasn’t yelled at Zoro and Luffy to get their asses moving.

(Or maybe the crew noticed a little more than he thought.)

Speaking of the witch, she’s making her way toward them now. Zoro nudges Luffy out of the way and gets up –

_Hehehe-_

A shadow, heading straight toward Nami, that seems to be alive and moving and perhaps not entirely real.

It slips and slides until it rests under her feet and the breath is stuck in Zoro’s chest as Nami _slips_ and –

( _getting her sword for another midnight duel with Zoro, Kuina had slipped and fallen, blood scattering the steps from the crack in her head. Died, because she was a little too careless; died, for no reason at all.)_

Catches herself on the railing.

Nami’s strong, always has been.

(Kuina was strong too.)

She’ll be alright. Why is Zoro panicking?

(Kuina is dead.)

“Zoro?” Luffy prompts already standing, clothes waving in the wind. Storm must be coming faster then… “You coming?”

“Yeah.” Zoro affirms and heaves himself up as the first lightning bolt cracks in the difference. “Be right there, Captain.”

He turns toward Nami, but Nami’s emerging from the galley and already barking orders

(She hadn’t gone down the steps at all.)

The sky is dark, and any shadow mixes in with the chaos of a Grand Line storm. Zoro gets to work, pushing doubt and little dead girls out of his mind.

-

The storm was brutal. Zoro, however, is almost thankful for how exhausted he feels after it. Perhaps he can sleep now.

But no.

Instead of reaching the island _tomorrow_ like Nami had thought, the hurricane and the coup de burst they used to get over the tsunami level swells and the sea king sneaking under the waves, had gotten them within distance of the island.

So they’re anchoring tonight at any available shore so _everyone_ can sleep.

Zoro steadies his stance and watches as the sea smooths and ripples into familiar shore patterns.

“Jungle island,” Nami deduces just by the air, standing to his left. Zoro could ask how she does it, but it’s a talent that’s far beyond anyone but her. “Pretty big too. I think there might be a mountain on the other side, but this area here is just low-level jungle. Humid and hot, with pretty beaches.” 

“A barbecue tomorrow then?” Robin inquires from Zoro’s right. When the hell did she get there?

“Hmph. Maybe. I don’t know what kind of wildlife we’ll find, but we should restock. Depends on what the captain wants. Hey- Where _is_ Luffy?” Nami looks around, eyes narrowing in an odd mix of distrust, concern, and acceptance that her captain has already rocketed his way to the island.

She’s wrong in her suspicious for once. Zoro tosses a thumb behind him. “There.”

Beneath the main mast is a dog pile of Chopper, Usopp, and Luffy. Chopper in Heavy point and Usopp almost protectively sandwiching Luffy between them. Relaxed, soaked and uncaring, the trio sleeps.

Nami’s shoulders slump. “Of course. Well, we’ll be there in thirty minutes. They can sleep till th-”

**_SKKKRECHHHHK_ ** _!_

There’s a crunching noise beneath them. A rock, glistening and black, jutting from the water.

It had lost to the Sunny’s Adam’s Wood hull but by the sound, it was a close thing.

“What the hell?” Zoro mutters as the rest of the crew wakes or comes up to deck at the noise. “What kind of rock is that?” _Can I cut it?_

_THUMP_!

“No trying to cut strange rocks till morning!” The witch screeches, fist still raised from where it whacked his head. By now she had a sixth sense for when the crew was trying to do some dangerous stunt.

“Damn, sheesh, okay.” Zoro mutters, casting a glare at Sanji as he laughs.

Ignoring their squabbling, Franky steps up to the rail and looks over. “That is totally NOT super. Nami-sis, where’d this come from?”

The navigator purses her lips. “Don’t know, it wasn’t there two seconds ago. I was checking the currents – there was no evidence of rocks.” She’s frowning heavily before she starts barking orders. “Bring up all the sails and get out the oars. I want us going slow – this is probably just some weird Grand Line stuff, but I don’t want any more surprises.”

“Aye-aye,” The conscious members of the Straw-Hat Pirates chorus. Brook goes to wake the sleeping members as the rest prep the oars. They are rarely used, since the engine or a coup de burst can get them through any slow patch of wind but… they are good for going slow and careful.

Luffy takes his place in front of Zoro, rubbing sleep for baggy eyes, and prepares to row. Nami’s at the forefront, watching for rocks while Franky mans the tiller.

Slowly, paddle by paddle, they make their way through the small bay.

_Nami’s right_ , Zoro thinks looking over the railing, _these rocks are rising out of nowhere_.

His observation haki (now, not at its best form admittedly) can’t even predict them. They look like shadows from waves at first, peaceful and innocent below the surface, before erupting through the surface in a silent, sharp spike.

A particularly tall one almost took out Zoro’s other eye before he sliced it.

Which, good. He can cut whatever this strange rock is. Bad, because the rock started faintly glowing in specks across the remained of the rock, and pins and needles went down his spine.

He doesn’t know what to think. 

Everyone else thinks it’s pretty at least.

It’s well past midnight by the time they reach a place close enough to shore that they can weigh anchor.

“Franky,” Luffy speaks for the first time in a while, once all the navigating’s done. “Will the watch system work?”

“It should, captain.”

“Will it _work._ ”

“Aye.”

“Then everyone sleeps.” Luffy looks out over his crew from his position on the main mast, and Zoro knows he sees how tired they all are. Wet, hungry, exhausted, and paranoid because of dumb rocks, no straw hat is fit to take watch. “We’ll look over the island in the morning.”

And suddenly, as everyone’s shoulders slump out of relief, Luffy’s seriousness wipes away. “Sanji, meat?”

“I’ll whip up a snack.” Sanji agrees, tearing off his gloves on his way to the kitchen. “It’ll be ready in a few, enough for everyone to get dry and everything.”

“Then I’m going to take a shower – Robin you coming?” Nami sighs

“Sure.”

And just like that, the crew disperses off the deck until it’s just Zoro, staring at the shimmering rocks in the moonlit water. Shadows play at the edge of his vision, but he can’t trust him.

Can’t trust _any_ of his sense.

_Hehehehe!_

Chopper tugs at his leg, and _oh,_ his haki must have decided to work because he hasn’t looked down yet. “I’m coming Chop.” He takes one last look out at the sea and follows the ball of fur inside to get changed.

When he comes up to the galley, Chopper is sitting next to Luffy, bandaging a scape he got from banging his head in the storm.

“Zoro!” The reindeer shouts, and _uh oh_ that’s his scolding voice. What did Zoro do _now?!_ “Where have you been? I need to check you over I want to make sure cutting that rock did nothing!”

“What do you mean, you’ve been with me the entire-“

Wait.

Had Chopper been with him? Out on deck?

Zoro can’t recall.

“I don’t care, sit down!” Chopper gives him the eyes, and dimly worried, Zoro acquiesces to his pleas.

_It’s nothing, surely_ , he thinks accepting tthe drink from Sanji and belatedly (uncaringly) realizing this is nothing like him to be so nonchalant about a lack of skill.

_It’s nothing at all_.

_Hehehehe!_

(Kuina falls down Sunny’s steps eight times that night as Zoro sleeps, each time whisking Wado across a different Straw Hat’s throat.

(And they had all _smiled_.))

-

Ace has been talking to Luffy in his dreams lately.

It’s nothing new.

Nightmares are always like this.

_(A brother there and a brother not, fire licking at his chest – why is it always fire that takes his big brothers? There are holes and Luffy is falling falling falling and there’s no one but him. It hurts more than all the poison in Impel down, this crushing loneliness and oh – when can he wake up?_

_Thank you for loving me-Brothers forever-SABO-Crybaby- flashes of his childhood in Ace’s voice, still so vivid to this day—)_

What’s new is what Ace has been saying.

Luffy knows his brother- his _brothers_. They are cruel and tough and strong, or were at any rate, but they have never been to cut the ones they care about without reason. Ace would never tell Luffy that he’s worthless, or that he failed, or that he’s alone.

He wouldn’t.

So why is his dream Ace saying things like that? Why is he killing his crew one by one, dying himself, why are his nightmares so twisted and _wrong?_

Luffy can’t make sense of it.

He tries not to sleep too much, but he’s like Ace and Grandpa and his sleeping schedule is all messed up, so he can’t help it.

It’s been going on for a while now, more than a week, and it hasn’t eased up, sleeplessness painting dark marks beneath his eyes.

(It’s gotten worse)

But there’s an island ahead, one with adventure, and it’s all that Luffy needs if only these dumb rocks would stop trying to _trap_ _their ship_.

Shitty rocks.

It’s quiet on deck as the rest of the crew retires to bed. Luffy’s soaked from crashing waves, clothes sticking to his damp skin, and he knows he should change and go to bed.

But…

The shadows look familiar in certain lights.

And Luffy misses his big brother.

A cloud shields the world for the moon for a long moment, stirring Luffy out of his daze. He shakes himself, hand falling from his chest and goes inside.

He doesn’t notice the sea fading from sight or the fog rolling onto the deck – permanent, in a final kind of way this time. The water shifts into something darker and the island trees, tall and innocent, shift in place.

Luffy sleeps, curled next to Zoro, and doesn’t notice the island watching him.

-

Luffy wakes alone.

He does not panic.

He has woken alone too many times for this to be a cause of panic.

(Makino worked late and early, Garp rarely stayed, Ace ignored him then loved him then left for the seas, three years spent in the jungle, then one at sea, then Ace left for good and Luffy spent two years (alone) on Ruskuina.

Loneliness cuts deep, but it is a hurt that Luffy knows like he knows freedom.)

This was not where he fell asleep.

Luffy is sitting on soft, white sand on a barren beach. Before him stretches the sea, dark and gloomy, but he can’t see the horizon rising above it. The trees behind him are of the familiar kind – the kind he grew up with on the islands of Goa. Jungle bark and underbrush, thick and threatening unless you know its secrets. They are dark, almost black, like the lush green that should make them up isn’t there.

Luffy looks up, placing a hand on his hat, and doesn’t see the sky.

Wait.

His hat.

_It’s not there._

Luffy lurches to his feet, panicking now.

“Hat! Where’s hat! Shit, where is it?!” He can’t see it in the fog that keeps drifting in and dragging like at his clothes like drowning me. “Dumb island, give me my hat back!”

Because, of course, it must be the island which took it. No one else is there, right?

The fog seems to pause and pull away. There’s a path, leading into the forest.

Luffy follows instinct and walks into the dark path.

(His haki, cut and lost, screams at him. It goes unheard.)

The forest swallows him and doesn’t look back.

(A child laughs in the forest.)

_Hehehehe!_

-

Sanji wakes to the sound of seagulls and the cold press of rock beneath his back. He’s up in a second, praying this is all a terrible dream, and praying he hasn’t woken up not on the ship.

(He’s had worse dreams as of late.)

Blue eyes blink open as a leg raises threateningly. The world around him is dark and covered in a fog. He’s on a raised, rock platform, jutting from the cliff side that rises far above him. Water, black and crashing, is on every side.

The sight is a familiar, demonized version of one of the most terrifying memories of his past.

_The sea-damned Rock._

_Damnit_!

Sanji places his foot down once he is sure that there is no threat that he can sense or see. Something crunches and slides underfoot, and when he looks down, all he sees is gleaming white.

Bones.

A human fucking skeleton.

That hadn’t been there before, had it?

Had _it?_

He can’t tell.

The world is growing fuzzy as the waves crash higher and the cliff side looms above him.

_Think rationally, damnnit. Don’t panic. You are here. Where do you go from here?_

Up.

Something slithers over his foot. When Sanji looks, whatever it is has far too many legs and is some sort of a fucking _bug._

Fuck.

He screams, not that he’ll ever admit it, wishes for a cigarette, and starts kicking himself into the air. He half expects to start falling with how weird this island is and how weird the past week has been but he gets up fine.

Easier than normal even.

He doesn’t like it.

At the top Sanji finds himself facing a dark jungle and finally goes to light that cigarette. He breathes in the smoke, familiar as a cooking fire, and breathes out a sigh of relief.

He’s alive. He’s off that damn rock. It was only a coincidence that’s all.

Metal slams over his face.

_“HGHK-”_ He chokes as the cigarette falls from his hands. He scrambles at his face as the mask locks over it, shutting him in into a world without food or freedom or friends. It encases his head from front to back, a mimic of that helmet from his youth, and it sends such a spike of fear through Sanji that he steps back.

The mask had flung from the forest after all.

He takes another step back, panic blinding him still.

Another.

Another.

And Sanji is _falling_ down the cliffside where he just jumped up. This time, however, he’s so weak that he can’t kick his legs out, paralyzed by fear as he is.

He falls and falls and falls and falls and –

_Crack._

**_Darkness_**.

_Hehehehe!_

-

Zoro wakes up in a new location and shrugs. It’s nothing that hasn’t happened before, but it is odd that the world would change while a crewmate was sleeping next to him. Fate tends to be nice enough to let him nap with the crew, and he vaguely recalls Luffy shoving him aside to curl up in his hammock with him.

(It sometimes stopped the bad dreams for both of them.)

He’s at the top of some mountain, a cave behind him and a jungle, dark and looming, is a good ways below the cliff he’s standing at. The view, despite the height, is pretty shitty due to all the damn fog and no visible sky (why isn’t the sky there?) so Zoro doesn’t spend to long looking at it.

Instead, he looks at the only way down.

The cliffside.

“Huh.” He thinks aloud and reaches for Shusui and Kitetsu. They sink easily (with his strength at least) into the ground and don’t have a lot of give. Should work well enough.

Zoro walks over to the edge and hops down, sticking his blades into the wall before he can drop more than ten feet.

They stick.

_Perfect_.

Kitetsu’s oddly not whining about being used for something other than bloodshed, which normally would spark alarm bells in Zoro’s head.

Instead, there is nothing but the rushing of wind in his ears as he uses his swords like picks to make his way down the mountain.

It is steady going and good training for his arms. The wind blows harsh making it harder for his grip to stay tight, but he manages and enjoys the challenge.

Belatedly, he wonders where the rest of the crew wound up.

_(This isn’t a Kuma situation, is it?_ )

He shudders, phantom pricks of pain running up and down his body.

( _His captain had been hurt worse than that and got up running. Zoro has to get stronger so he can be worthy of the Pirate King. If not, Zoro will turn the promise he made Luffy swear on himself and stab himself through. It would only be right after all._

_Zoro can’t lose.)_

_No, can’t be._ The crew must be somewhere on this island, not spread out to the winds again. They _have_ to be.

The wind whistles into his ear, louder and shriller this time. Zoro’s shaken from his thoughts. _Focus._

“Zoro!”

He loosens his grip in shock and slips before catching himself. _Shit- who was that?_

“Zoro! Over here!” He turns his head to his right.

Standing there, on a small out cropping and hugging the cliff side for dear life is _Nami_.

“Nami!” He calls, smile breaking over his face as the oppressive loneliness to the island that he hadn’t noticed before breaks. “You okay?”

“yeah! Just come and get me! I’ve been stuck up here for the past hour!” She calls back. “And if you don’t I’ll add twenty hundred percent to your debt!”

_“Dumb witch_.” Zoro mutters but makes his way over anyway. He pauses next to the outcropping that she’s at and gestures to his back with a nod of his head. “Hop on.”

Nami nods and carefully climbs onto his back. The added weight is difficult, but nothing he can’t handle.

In the back of his mind, he remembers the story Chopper told him of how Luffy must have reached the top of drum.

Zoro can handle this, if only to improve his strength.

Nami curls in tight, though her body doesn’t quite fit right against his. She’s constantly shifting as he makes his way down, hair tickling him and knees digging into his side.

“Could you quit it?” Zoro snarks after another movement.

“Sure, of course I’ll sto-” Nami’s sarcasm is cut off as she slips. “ZORO!” she screeches, still hanging on just by the arms linked around his stomach.

Zoro snarls, letting go of one sword to grab on to her. “Shit!”

It does nothing. Nami looks at him with wide panic in her eyes as she slips further down and further down in the matter of seconds. “Zoro…” She trails off as her grip finally weakens.

“NAMI!!” Zoro screeches reaching out a hand to her. Her finger tips brush his and that’s the last touch he gets with her.

He could have slipped down, he quick enough with his swords to do so but his limbs are locked. He can’t move, and his hand is glued to the hilt of his one katana.

Nami falls

and falls

and falls

until she’s nothing but a smear on the ground below. He should be too high to see the impact but it rushes through Zoro’s mind with sudden clarity.

He sees it all – all the gruesome details and twisted limbs.

Nami falls, just like Kuina did, and Zoro wonders how many more people he will let fall as the darkness sinks in around him.

He stays, hanging on the cliff, for hours.

_Too weak. Everyone falls, everyone dies, meaninglessly because of you._

_What are you going to tell the rest of the crew?_

The fog grows thicker.

_Hehehehehe!_

_-_

The forest, Luffy finds, is a lot like Goa’s. Tall and winding and full of things hiding in the underbrush that are either tasty, delicious, or both. Of course, he hasn’t managed to catch anything yet, only glimpses of the rustling bushes, but he’s sure he’ll find meat soon enough.

As he passes by a familiar path and tree and trap, however, something stops in his heart.

There’s a shattered telescope by the roots of a large tree, the kind Luffy wanted when he was a kid. Drops of red splotch the edges and lead up the hardened trunk of the tree.

At the top is a tree house fashioned like a boat, unused and abandon. A flag waves at the top, and Luffy knows that this forest isn’t a lot like Goa’s –

It _is_ Goa’s.

He rockets to the top of the tree house, and ducks in the door.

(Maybe his hat is here?)

_Hehehe!_

Luffy whips around and the laugh stops.

_Wha-_

“Luffy.” He turns his back to the voice that shouldn’t be there, it shouldn’t _it shouldn’t._ “Stop jumping at shadows, crybaby.”

Ace smiles, blood dripping down his chin, and Luffy sighs.

It’s a dream.

(Ace is dead, despite the fact that he’s standing here before him, hole through his chest and just as bloody and smiling and peaceful as the day he died.

Luffy doesn’t dwell on the past much, and he certainly doesn’t travel back to it.

Ace is dead.

This is a dream.

(He wants it to be real.))

“Ace,” Luffy rasps, not flinching as the corpse steps toward him. “Have you seen my hat?”

“No. You should take better care of your things, Lu. C’mon, I’ll help you look.” Ace stumbles out the door and down the ladder.

Luffy watches the blood _drip drip drip_ after him, and follows Ace down.

(Just a dream.

His brother is dead.)

_Hehehe!_

“WHO’S THERE!?” Luffy yells when he hears the voice again. It stops, just as suddenly as it began.

The forest is silent.

_What’s going on? Where’s my crew?_

He hopes they aren’t dealing with this too.

“LUFFY!” Ace shouts, voice sounding wet. “YOU COMING?”

“YEAH!” Luffy says and takes one last look at the tree house before jumping down.

-

_“The Drifting Fog Peninsula – known for the fact that is not a peninsula at all but an Island of rock and mountain. Those who see the fog should know best to turn back – to be caught in it is to be caught in a trap, and not one of a dumb beast. The island itself is a predator, and does not like its prey easy to dupe, or so the legend says. There’s only one, from the journals of a log forgotten traveler, J.B. This is the Grand Line however, and I doubt there’s much exaggeration, Nami.”_

_“Right. We can tell the boys tomorrow – I didn’t see any fog, so we are probably good for now. That storm was terrible! I need sleep and not screaming.”_

_“Fufufu! Aye!”_

-

It’s not Ace at the bottom. Or at least, not the Ace Luffy knew last.

It is Ace as a child, angry and mean.

Ace is dead, and this is a dream.

“C’mon crybaby, let’s go find your hat.” Ace says, dashing away into the forest, pipe not clanking against any tree or rock.

Its dark. Luffy wonders how this Dream Ace can see where he’s going.

(At least he’s not being mean or saying things that Ace wouldn’t.)

“Ace! Wait up!” Luffy calls and runs after him, uncaring of the branches that whack at him or trip in his path. This jungle is like Goa if not for the fact that Luffy can’t easily dash through it.

Ace runs and runs and runs. It’s like Luffy is seven again, and chasing after his big brothers who are so much stronger than him. This time, however, his big brother doesn’t wait for him to catch up, and disappears into the thickening fog.

“Ace?” Luffy halts and calls hesitantly.

No answer.

He lost him.

(Again.)

Oh well. He still has to find hat – and this isn’t really Ace that he’s chasing, only a vision from his nightmares that he can’t seem to have a connection to.

(It’s an odd dream. Usually Luffy tries to hug Ace, or be with him, or talk to him more, but he doesn’t trust this Ace.

He’s never known an Ace was a Dream Ace before.)

“Luffy?” That’s not Ace’s voice that’s –

“USOPP!”

He lunges at his friend, wrapping limbs around him on instinct. Strong arms catch him, holding him tight.

“Luffy!” Usopp says again, smiling bright. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

He wonders when he woke up, because this Usopp is alive and solid before him. Usopp lets Luffy down, and starts to drag him deeper into the forest. “C’mon, everyone’s waiting. I swear you’re just as bad as Zoro, the beach is _this_ way. Everyone’s waiting y’know.”

“Yeah?” Luffy stumbles as Usopp’s grip tightens around his wrist, urging him to keep up.

Odd, how Usopp isn’t screaming about the forest. He’s either really worried or he’s even more super than before, Luffy muses.

(He hopes it the latter. He doesn’t like it when his crew is worried)

“The ships okay, and the logue pose is set, we want to get out of here before we lose it or something. You got it, Luffy?” Usopp questions him, pausing in the forest trail. Weird, how the forest seems so much easier to navigate. “Why were you sleeping there in the middle of the forest anyway? Don’t you know-”

Blood blooms in the center of Usopp’s chest, from where he stands in front of Luffy. His words cut off as he stumbles once, twice, before falling into Luffy’s arms.

“Lu-luffy?” Usopp wheezes before growing silent.

Growing cold.

Dead.

(It’s too sudden, the warmth leaving to quickly and a projectile nowhere to be seen. There’s no enemy on this island, no one who would attack Usopp and leave Luffy alone. Luffy doesn’t care about any off the oddities as he sits there with his beloved friends’ body in his arms.

He failed. Again.

He’s too _weak_.

And now, in the forest, he’s alone again.)

-

Sanji wakes again to cloudy darkness, a pattern forming, but this time he can’t open his jaw or see much past the bars settling over his vision.

The _mask_.

Fuck.

What the hell, why the hell, is he is this damn thing again? Why why why _why?_ Luffy, his crew, freed him from this, he’s free to chase his dreams and find the All Blue –

So why is he in this damn nightmare scenario? Who put this on his face?

What happened before this?

_The rock, the rock, the bugs – fuck the bugs – leaping upward and darkness._

Right.

Take two.

Sanji gets up and touches the mask around his face. It’s heavy, heavier than he ever remembered it being, and weighs upon his shoulders like the weight of the world.

This should be nothing – Sanji is strong, stronger than any mask.

He can’t even jump more than ten feet with it on. Every time his head drags him back down to the ground, slamming him into the ground. He tries countless times, each time feeling his energy wane more and more.

Escape is so close, yet he’s still trapped on this _damn_ rock.

_Use your head, Sanji_.

He takes a breath, again wishing for a cigarette, and steps back and falling until he is sitting down. The world seems to go a little hazy, a little blurry, and then he’s back.

Feeling so much weaker than before. Did he black out?

No – he hadn’t.

Had he?

_Use. Your. Head._

Right.

Sanji looks down, and all sense flies out the window. His hands are practically skeletal in appearance, thin and drawn with barely any muscle. They are trembling as he looks, barely able to hold their curled shape.

_What – what happened?_

The last time he had seen this was with his Captain, who had starved waiting for his cook to come back. Then had been lost sailors arriving at the Baratie, and the first time…

The first time had been Sanji himself, and Zeff, standing on that rock.

He’s the rock again – _again_ , oh shit, how the hell did he get here, fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck-

His hand brushes something as he pushes it against the ground, trying to leverage his weakened body up.

It’s not a bug this time, Sanji notes, as he looks over at the item.

No, it’s not even close.

Its Robin, peacefully lying there as if nothing has happened. But –

She’s as skeletal as Sanj,i even as her hand lies outstretched to him. Her open eyes are glassy and her lips parched and cracked.

Her chest is still. She’s not breathing, and there are no wounds on her body.

Robin had starved to death on the same rock as him, probably begging him for food or a way out, and he didn’t even feed her.

Sanji didn’t feed her.

Terror seeps in deep as his heart painfully stops in his just. _He didn’t feed her, oh god._

_He didn’t feed his crew._

_Are the rest of them the same? Starving?_

Facing Sanji’s _worst_ nightmare?

-

Zoro’s at the bottom of the cliff and he can’t find Nami’s body. Can’t even bring her to sunny to give her a proper pirate funeral.

_What a failure, Zoro, you’re pathetic,_ Kuina’s voice rings in his ears. Wado hangs limply in his grasp.

Zoro doesn’t fear much. He never flinches, even at certain death ( _Take my head instead!)_ and monstrous beings and people hold no charge against him.

But this…

This _failure_ to protect his crew, his dream, his _family_ … To let them die because of something so simple and meaningless as slipping out of his grasp…

It’s like lead is in his stomach. Despair trembles through his veins.

_Nami… oh god, Nami –_

(Kuina was like an annoying older sister to Zoro. Nami is like her annoying counterpart, ragging on about his debt and how stupid he is but unlike Kuina she has always told Zoro that she thought he was a monster, and never thought of how much weaker she might become. She was family.)

She’s _dead._

(Zoro knows death. A warrior’s death is something to be valued – dying in battle, or peacefully after a long life of victory and fall to someone greater than yourself. To die in the path of a dream. This is the death that Zoro can accept.

To die for nothing, for no reason other than accident – Zoro feels his chest tighten at the reality of it.

A thousand hells would be better.)

_And he can’t even find her body._

He wants to feel denial. He wants to feel rage, something burning, something how he usually is.

All Zoro can feel is _cold._

(A failure. He couldn’t protect her, couldn’t protect her from this horrible, horrible fate. A _failure._ )

He needs to find Luffy and everyone else so they can help him find her.

He starts walking, wandering the bottom of the cliff (as if some part of him believes he can find her body that way.) Time seems to wax and wane on this island – the featureless sky shifting from bright to dark in minutes, even seconds, as if its day and night all at once.

How long has he walked?

_“Yo-ho-ho-h, yo-ho-ho-ho, Yo-ho-ho-h, yo-ho-ho-ho~”_

“Brook?” Zoro echoes out at the sudden voice.

Bink’s Sake. He’ll know that tune anywhere. It’s coming from his right but…

That’s not the usual solo. That has piano in it – too many voices for one, single skeleton.

_What’s going on?_

He follows the song, for once not getting lost as he is prone to do. The voices grow louder in song, followed with suspicious thudding sounds. Zoro finds the coldness in him waning as concern grows. He starts running.

“Brook?” he calls again, waiting for the returning call, the breaking of song as the skeleton greets his beloved crew.

He doesn’t answer.

Zoro’s heart beats faster, his breath constricting in his throat.

Zoro comes upon a small clearing. There’s a small pond in the middle, deep with semi clear waters. Somethings in it, but he can’t tell yet.

The music’s ringing loudly now, but it’s only Brook’s voice now.

He sounds like he’s crying.

There’s a knock against his foot, and the music shuts off, leaving an eerie silence. A look down, and it was not Brook that was singing but a tone dial.

_Brook’s_ tone dial, the one he was going to give to Laboon, the one of the Rumbar pirate’s last living song.

He _never_ lets that out of his sight. Which means…

Cold washes over Zoro once again, like a beast digging into his heart. He steps closer to the pond, and peers in.

Brook, dead in the only way they knew for sure he could die.

Drowned.

Zoro collapses to his knees, and mourns for two of his _family_.

-

Usopp is left on the forest floor once Luffy struggles past the barrier in his mind (the one that screams _just like Ace, all alone, you failed, you failed you failed, your alone, your weak, such a bad captain-)_ because Usopp had said the others were waiting for him.

What if something bad happened to them too? What if what if what if?

Luffy sprints through the trees and trips over metal, landing face first in the dirt if not for a quick arm.

He knows that clang. He wishes he didn’t, because this time there was no _SUPER!_ shout to accompany it.

It’s Franky, curled into a ball, with his fleshy back bloody and pierced. In the center of his arms is Chopper, lifeless and limp and bloody.

Both of them aren’t breathing. Both of them are dead, no matter how hard Luffy tries to sense their force with his haki.

(Franky, it seems, had tried to protect the already wounded Chopper with his body. He had failed. Had whoever killed Usopp killed them too?)

“Franky?” Luffy croaks, still hoping he wasn’t to late. “Franky? Chopper?”

Denial shatters away like glass when there’s still no response.

His crew is dead.

Who knows who might else be?

“NAMI!? ROBIN!?” Luffy jumps up, looking around. _Please not be there, please not be-_

There. They are _there_. With Brook next to them, all dead and Sanji lying slumped next to him and Zoro… and Zoro lying right there. His swords run through him.

A familiar vivre card is burning away in his head. Sabo’s card.

His big brother is dying.

It burns away entirely.

His big brother is gone.

He has no one now.

Luffy’s alone, for good this time.

**_SNAP_ ** _._

_-_

It has been days, Sanji thinks at least, since he found Robin’s body. And the others, a few days later, scattered around the rock. His memory as to how he got here, how his crew starved is hazy, but one fact remains crystal clear.

He let his crew starve to death, and is now starving himself, trapped in a mask.

Something he swore he would never let happen again.

_How,_ he would ask, if he could get past the lead in his veins, _how._

But he can’t, except sit there in numb terror as voices laugh in his head and shadows dance before him.

Taunting him, In that dizzying way of theirs.

It’s just like the rock, when every other day a mirage would appear on the water, tricking them into thinking some rescue was upon them.

This time, it was a mirage of his former family, or his friends at times, whispering and laughing at him and with him when he managed a crazed snicker.

(His chest felt tight and his ears were ringing. Is this what it was like to die?)

It was only when Zeff appeared, stretching out a hand to him, inviting him to stand up and get off the damn rock and join his crew did Sanji know he had finally _lost_ it.

He reached out a hand anyway and –

**_SNAP_ ** _._

The world flickered, for one, crystalline moment, and Sanji could see again.

_That’s not Zeff._

The mirage came back but it was too late.

Sanji _knew._

_-_

Zoro had dragged Brook out of the pond and laid his song in his skull. He would get Luffy, and ask Luffy what they should do about the tone dial – should they leave it with the last of the Rumbar pirates, or bring it to the whale it was destined for.

Perhaps both, and bury Brook at the sea of Reverse Mountain

He stumbles along, after carefully laying Brook down, and goes to keep searching. Each sight he finds is another horrible mockery of his crew, a death they didn’t deserve. He wants to stop and help them, but it’s like a child is tugging him along, insistent and stubborn, leaving him no choice but to follow the shadows further into the woods.

Franky dismantled. Robin collapsed. Usopp shot, Chopper with him. The shit cook dead with a cigarette still burning in his mouth.

Tears fall down Zoro’s cheeks and he’s trembling, eyes wide and horrified. His crew is _dead._

_(Where’s Luffy?)_

_(Behind you, hehehe!)_

Zoro whips around at the invisible force in his head. Stumbling toward him is Luffy, looking lost and confused and _with blood_ pouring from the wound in his chest.

“Zo..ro” His captain rasps, reaching out to him before stumbling.

Zoro catches him, watching numbly as his captaiin’s light fades from his eyes. His hat is torn and his chest slowly stops moving up and down.

Shadows sink their claws into Zoro’s body as he stands there holding his captains’ body – the man he vowed to protect, to live for, die for, give his dream for.

Suddenly, how far they have come, more than half way across the world in the most dangerous sea, doesn’t seem so far anymore.

(His captain is resting against him that first night in the dinghy, the first solid presence in a long while. He’s smaller than Zoro, but so much stronger, and the hat he wears on his head seems like a crown made of sun. Something settles in Zoro’s chest as the confidence that he will become the greatest swordsman in the world shifts into not quiet but not loud knowledge.

He will be the greatest swordsman, and Luffy will be king. Simple.)

Luffy has died before becoming king. The future King of the pirates is _dead_ and so is his entire crew.

Zoro laws Luffy’s body on the ground and closes Luffy’s eyes with a gentle hand. There’s no smile on his face as Zoro thought there would be when this day finally happened. Just anguish.

Wado finds his way into his hand.

_If you step in the way of my dream, Ill run you through with my own swords!_

Luffy is dead (someone more than his own pride) and can’t fulfill his promise.

King or Dead. Guess they were dead.

Perhaps Zoro shall fulfill Luffy’s promise to him instead.

_Hehehe!_

_Come on Zoro_ , Kuina’s voice lulls in his ear, _join me at the top of the world._

He unsheathes Wado and –

**_SNAP_ ** _._

Luffy fades away and it isn’t Zoro’s hand holding Wado but a shadowy one.

He doesn’t give the shadows a chance to return as the numb terror that has been so uncharacteristic finally flees from his veins. He can see clearly now, observation Haki back for just a moment, and the world makes sense again.

Zoro knows the truth.

And that was _Luffy’s_ , living Luffy who would be the Second Pirate King, _Conquerors Haki._

Zoro slashes with Wado Ichimonji and runs for the shores. 

-

The world shutters, much in the same way it did when his big brother died, but Luffy pays it no heed. He doesn’t open his eyes as he falls to ground and lets his haki pour forth. Rayleigh had trained it, drilled it into him so he had nothing but perfect control, but Luffy has never reacted to rage or sadness with anything but self-destruction.

(Before, when his crew disappeared, he had smashed his head into the ground. When his brother died, he destroyed a quarter of the island and reopened half his wounds. People scolded him, but how could he explain that he was _nothing_ without his beloved crew? His family? His brother?)

And how could he react to all of his crew being lost, his last brother dying, with anything but soul crushing terror and rage?

Luffy is alone now. The world is bleak and cold as he opens his eyes. _Count what you still have_ Jimbe said, and Luffy still hopefully has Jimbe, if he too isn’t gone somewhere else in the world.

Around him is a crater, his crew’s bodies suspiciously untouched by the force of his conquering will.

His will feels broken now, out of reach.

Ace sits before him, looking like the day he set out. Young, smiling, ready to brave the world.

He doesn’t say anything, and neither does Luffy. Ace falls eventually, now old again, into his arms, and Luffy feels terror seep into his veins. The body is gone in the next minute, as if it was never really there, but the blood coating his hands tells another story. Its just like Marineford

The world is black. Dark. Luffy is alone on this island with no family or friends. He doubts whatever is hunting down his crew spared Sunny.

He can’t feel anything any more. Just horror, sinking deep. As if something is sapping his soul, his rage, his anger, his _fury_ at his family is being stolen, leaving nothing but the loneliness.

(Luffy has always been alone. Been left to shake in the dark while grandpas and idols and big brothers were at sea (or dead.) It shakes him, that nothing is perhaps real and there’s no one to love and cherish and treasure. It shakes him in a way he can’t understand, leaves him feeling unsteady and uncertain. He’s terrified of it.)

No shadows dance before his eyes and no voice sing out and laugh in his ear. All there is is the crushing void of being alone – it hurts, far more than Luffy thought it would.

He’s collapsed on the ground now, completely boneless, eyes wide and unseeing. His hat is still nowhere to be seen as his clothes still feel sticky with blood.

Luffy doesn’t want this.

(He wants to think _there’s a way_ and if not _I’ll make one_ but something is stopping that train of thought in his head like a sea stone wall. He’s powerless.)

He wants this nightmare to _end._

Perhaps if he closes his eyes…

The world fades, little by little.

_Hehehehe!_

Luffy’s eyes snap open. He’s not alone in this place after all.

Someone else is on this island, and he’s going to _stop_ them, for what they did to his crew. His _family._

Then… then he can sleep.

For now, however, Luffy will _fight_.

(the shadows grasp at him as he runs but there will be time for burial and mourning later. This island, Luffy is sure, will not be their final resting place. Only the sea can have that that honor.

The shadows drag him back, but he will not stop – he will _never_ stop.

Not when his nakama need him.)

-

Flames erupt, turning the world around Sanji hazy. The weight on his head, the heavy metal mask, falls away and when he looks down his limbs are fuzzy, as if their form isn’t truly there. It is though – Sanji knows this _illusion_ of starvation is nothing more than that.

An illusion, designed to turn him insane on this hellish island. Sanji won’t stand for it anymore.

His friends’ bodies are still there, next to him, nearly bone now.

( _Impossible,_ his mind says, knowledge telling him that humans don’t become bone that quickly and of _course_ this is some hellish nightmare.)

Sanji ignores them and pushes against the shadows lapping at his legs.

He needs to do something, get to his friends, and the first step to that is to get _free_ and to get _off_ this _damn_ rock.

_Feed your friends_ , something says to him, voice a copy of his own, _but you failed_.

It’s trying to lure him back in.

_“NO!”_ Sanji yells aloud, flames bursting around him. A cook isn’t afraid of fire but shadows should be – and these ones _aren’t_ , still latching on to him.

Whatever.

He sinks ever so slightly into the ground, creating a crater with the force of his power, and leaps up. He makes it half way up the cliff before he needs to sky jump, and a third before the shadow things latch on to him.

(They are starting to form a shape now that they don’t have a nightmare to feed off of. Some are his ex-siblings, some are his starving friends, some are even Zeff but most are twisted, inhuman things, which act like every limb on their body isn’t theirs but they are moving them anyway.)

Sanji snarls at him and the traitorous thoughts they try to put in his brain and reaches the top of the cliff. This time, when the mask flies at him, Sanji is read. With a fiery foot the mask is kicked into the ground, smoldering and dented.

“Heh,” he says, talking just to hear his own voice again (to see if he was real), and kicks it again. The shadow things are hanging back now.

He’s sure they are thinking up a new strategy to get to him, but that won’t work anymore.

He knows their game – and he knows what he wants to win.

_“Where. Are. My. Friends.”_ He growls out to the shadows, not expecting a response.

And he doesn’t get one – at least not verbally. When he finishes his snarl, the things melt and fly away into the darker forest like wisps.

Pieces of a puzzle he never knew existed are falling into place. Sanji finally finds a cigarette and lights it, taking a drab and billowing smoke into the air.

There’s no sky, he realizes. And no rock behind him at the bottom of the cliff either.

He takes another drag. And the shadows on the ship… the ones haunting him… were they the cause of his nightmares? The ones sinking into him and _dragging_ his will and lifeforce out of him?

Which means…

Mosshead. Luffy.

_Shit_.

Sanji runs and doesn’t look back.

-

Zoro has been sprinting for a while now, and the shadows are still chasing him. Luffy is out there somewhere, alive, and so is Nami and Brook and everyone else.

These shadows, shifting and shapeless all at once with limbs that don’t belong to him, are just another barrier he needs to cut before he can return to his crew.

Zoro has one eye, but that doesn’t mean his vision is impaired. To be in a fight, to be a swordsman, to be a _pirate_ means to always know more than what is there.

Observation haki just puts a word to it.

Except… his fucking haki isn’t _there._ And he can’t tell what he needs to cut yet.

_Damnit_.

Is this what had been going on in on the ship? Had the shadows been reaching out from this island so much that they caused his nightmares?

What is going _on_ here?

When Luffy had let loose that conquerors haki, the world had been cleared for a second.

_Assume nothing is real._

Any obstacle he could cut down.

All he needs is Luffy and his haki to cut off the head and find the real culprit of this hell hole.

_Damn island! Damn it all!_ Bringing up memories of Kuina, of Marineford, of whatever the shite cook saw, of dead crew left and right – shit, if this is its tactics, then what is Sanji facing? What’s _Luffy_ facing?

(Sanji’s hand shakes when one of the crew can’t eat and he hates wearing anything metal on his face. Nami had told them all about Whole Cake, about how his ex-siblings and ex-father were assholes, and how he used Sanji’s _true_ family as leverage. Food doesn’t go to waste on Sunny, and the crew isn’t trapped or ignored. Zoro doesn’t want to imagine what it would be like to Sanji if those things _did_ happen.)

( _I’d rather be hurt than alone, Zoro,_ Luffy had told him once, when Luffy was in that post battle fever and had pushed himself too far. Zoro doesn’t think Luffy knows that he told Zoro, but it doesn’t stop Zoro from thinking of the two years where Luffy had thought he had lost it all – and was alone, no matter the reality.)

Zoro needs to get to his captain _now_.

A shadow swipes at his feet. Zoro jumps, sweeping out Kitetsu in an easy motion. It cuts the shadow, which had the vague appearance of Yosaku, and splits into two shadowy Kuina’s.

Damnit.

_Where’s the shore in this place?_

Zoro’s so far preoccupied with looking for the moon (moon controls the tides, therefore, follow the moon and you will find water) which isn’t there that he doesn’t notice the hat drifting in front of him, being chased by some other shadow.

Until that hat smacks him in the face that is.

It’s familiar, soft despite its straw material, and with a vibrant, old red ribbon crossed around it.

_Luffy’s?_ Zoro pulls the hat away from his face with a questioning, concerned look. He’s about to examine it further when –

The hat disappears from his hands into some child’s before him. The child is small, freckled, and angry, staring up at him with silvered, unseeing eyes. He’s never seen him before, but there’s something in the shape of the nose and the curl of the hair that reminds Zoro of someone long ago.

He doesn’t know who that is though.

“Hey!” Zoro says to the stranger, reaching for the hat. “Give that back! That’s my captain’s!”

“Yeah?” The child snarls, vitriol practically dripping from his mouth. “It’s my brothers – your shitty captain ain’t ever getting it back.”

_Brother?_

The child turns and dashes away, leading the swordsman into the forest and anyway from where he thought the water was. _Shit,_ Zoro thinks as he loses the kid, _where the hell did he go?_

He takes a right (or so he assumes) and then a left at the familiar big tree, and then another right at the big tree – is this tree moving?

Whatever.

The forest is watching him, mocking him, but there’s no child around him. His haki clears in spurts and burst, giving him clarity to see the truths of shadows past shadowy captains and Kuinas.

Zoro slashes them all and pauses in a small clearing, still looking for the _brat_.

The worlds growing dark again, not that it had gotten that much lighter. The shadows are twisting more and more, staying just outside the clearing, watching him.

Zoro tightens his grip on his sword as he looks out at the shadows. There’s something coming. 

_No._ Some _one_.

Red flies out of the bushes and barrels into Zoro, knocking him into the dirt and leaving him disoriented.

But there will never be a day he doesn’t recognize that sloping scar.

_“Luffy?!”_

_-_

Luffy feels like he can’t breathe, like his skin is buzzing with a thousand tiny needles under it. His despair and rage had turned into terror that was dragging at his heart making it sink _low low low low low_ and beat so fast he was worried Chopper would yell at him for it.

(Except Chopper was dead now, wasn’t he?)

He didn’t know where he was going, only that he needed to lash _out_. He felt small, in the way he never did except when he was _alone_ and there was a _knife_ digging into his chest and twisting and twisting and twisting—

Luffy stumbles, breath catching in his throat, and barrels through the bushes. Tears from his panic threaten to fall but he won’t let them he _won’t—_

He crashes into something as his vision was going blurry, as oxygen refuses to enter his lungs.

But…

The world, previously blurry, zeroes in on a familiar, green shape.

_“Zo..ro?”_ He chokes out, air still not entering his lungs as he looks towards his swordsman.

Breathing. _Alive_ , with no blood or anything, just red tear tracks falling from his one eye.

“ZORO!” He shouts and sobs again, lunging at his first mate whose still lying on the ground, wrapping arms and legs alike around him. “ZORO!” He doesn’t know any other word.

Zoro is the same. “Luffy, LUFFY!” Zoro chokes out just as Luffy did, wrapping arms tightly around his captain. “You’re _alive,_ ” And Luffy’s not imaging the wet spot on his shoulder.

“You too, you’re _alive, I thought you were dead, Zoro, Zoro!”_ Luffy clings tighter.

The shadows around his vision seem to bleed away, the longer he clings to his first mate. His chest loosens and he can _breathe_ and he’s no longer _alone_.

And if Zoro’s alive… that means…

“Zoro.” It must be the thousandth time Luffy’s said it, but he still repeats it as he pulls away just enough to see Zoro’s face. “What’s going on? Where’s the rest of the crew? You were _dead._ ” His heart tightens again, recalling the terror that’s now only just abating

“You were dead too. All of the crew was.”

The shadows titter around them and Luffy tightens his grip. He doesn’t need to ask Zoro more than that, can see it in his eyes that he was tempted too, by shadows with loved faces.

He _hates_ it.

_Hehehehe!_

“It stopped when you used your haki.” Luffy nods at Zoro’s statement and hauls his swordsman upward. “I think it’s something with the shadows.”

“Hmm,” He hums and glares at the world around him. Fine then.

His hearts wild still, and he may still be holding on to Zoro’s sleeve, reluctant to let his new refound crewmate go but –

He’s not doing it (losing _them)_ again.

_Ever._

Luffy wishes he had his hat, but at least he can assume his crew is alive for now. And Sabo to, judging by the slip of a Vivre Card in Wado Ichimonji’s hilt.

Fine.

Luffy drags Zoro forward, and forces the world to _kneel_ to him, in one wave of the Will of Kings.

_Conquerors Haki._

The world goes still for just a moment.

_Wind._

The shadows melt away, dragging themselves backward from trees and sky and people, as if being propelled by an invisible force field. The inky jungle is no more, and no longer resembled Goa’s lush trees and undergrowth. Instead it is barren, with sickly, endless trees that reach up to a cloudy sky. The fog is gone, apparently made of shadows, and there is a person up ahead, revealed by the force.

Luffy doesn’t dare let his _will_ go, now that Zoro is before him and the shadows that _laughed_ and took his crew away from him are _gone._

The figure up ahead stands and waves, familiar hat in hand. Luffy charges forward, not letting go of Zoro’s arm and waved.

_“SANJI!”_

Sanji smiles and waves back.

-

A moment ago, Sanji was charging through the trees, the next, running over some bratty kid with a pipe and something that did _not_ belong to him in hand.

The kid glares, and swipes at Sanji with his pipe, but Sanji has been mad for a while now and if the kid was looking for a fight, well.

Sanji breaks the pipe in half and snatches Luffy’s hat back from the freckled brat.

“Who the fu-“ He starts to ask before the island _shakes._

_Kneel._ A will commanded that doesn’t end. **_Kneel_** _._

It is _Luffy_ , sending out another burst of conqueror’s and this time he seems to have gotten the clue that whatever was controlling the shadow’s will isn’t greater than his own.

_Thank the seas._

Sanji watches as shadows seem to fling back from Luffy’s will, as if bouncing off a shield. The island becomes bleak as the inky figures melt from trees and shrubbery and sky, leaving a barren landscape.

And, with his captain and the mosshead in clear sight.

(Where’d the kid go?)

“Sanji!” Luffy shouts, running towards him, but Sanji is already moving to meet him. He slams into the both of them, yes, mosshead included, catching them in his arms as arms surrounded him in turn.

“You’re _alive_ ,” He cries, tears that his body told him he wasn’t able to shed ( _starvation)_ dripping from his eyes. “ _You’re alive!_ ” He holds on tighter as Luffy and Zoro both tighten their own grip.

A huddle of emotions, for a minute, before instinct kicks in.

“Fuck off shit cook,” Zoro mutters, and if Sanji’s “Shitty-ass mosshead” wasn’t just as wobbly he would have teased him for years.

As it was, reunions could come later. For now…

Sanji plops the iconic straw hat on Luffy’s head. “Missing something captain?”

“Shishishishi! You found it! Thank you Sanji!” And rubbery limbs wrap around him again, damn it, he can’t _breathe_!

Luffy seems to get the hint and backs off, letting Sanji suck in some much needed oxygen. But still keeps a grip on his sleeve, as he was with Zoro, and Sanji understood.

He switches Luffy’s grip on his sleeve so that Luffy was gripping his head, and took a drag of his cigarette with the other.

“So… I’m assuming personal nightmares?”

The joy that had crossed Luffy’s face was no more. Instead, his lips form a stern frown as his hand made an aborted motion to reach up – presumably to touch his scar.

“Yeah.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Least you guys figured the conqueror’s haki thing out. Now we can actually find the bastard.”

The world is so much clearer now, without the oppressing force of the shadows on his mind, suppressing his haki. Like the glass has been wiped clean and now he can see the world, thanks to Luffy.

He hadn’t even affirmed the lack of haki before, but it must have started when the nightmares started.

Luffy cocks his head to the side. “Oh.” As if he just now noticing the vibrant sense in the world.

“Dumbass.”  
  


“Hmph.”

It’s quiet as the trio looks around them. Luffy lets go of their sleeves to push his hat more firmly on his head and make a fist with his hands.

“It’s the island,” He says “Isn’t it?” Sanji’s captain’s voice is low, but it seems to tremble with anger. “Making us feel all that without our permission.”

The thing _hurting_ them, _targeting_ them, because they were the only ones who could sense it isn’t a person… it’s the entire island.

Puzzle pieces are falling into place. The island attacked them because they were able to sense its power, were strong enough to repel it, and tried to shut it down before it could reach that point but sending out shadows with fears in them.

Preying on them. Sanji feels disgusted.

He doesn’t know why, only knows that the Island had hunted them for sport, leeching off of their fear and despair and something awful. He doesn’t want to know what it showed the others, but judging by his own terror, it can’t have been pleasant.

The island is _alive_ like the shadows in the Florian triangle, and Sanji wants to _burn it_ to the ground.

Luffy’s in agreement, eyes flashing. “The shadows got to come from somewhere, right?” Sanji and Zoro nod. “Then we find the source and smash it to bits. That way it can’t come back.”

Finishing that, Luffy whips out an arm, stretches it, and knocks down half the trees to their left.

“COME ON OUT! IM GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS!” He yells and charges forward. With twin devil grins, Sanji and Zoro follow.

Luffy’s haki pours forth like the flood. He’s keeping it up, strong and steady and unrelenting as they rampage halfway across the island. He’s a conqueror, a true one, even if he never wants to rule over anything but his own freedom.

Sanji lashes out at the remaining foliage and shadows, thankful that his captain is _Luffy._

But… the shadows are slipping away into something greater, convalescing at the center of the island, a shallow valley surrounded by the two mountains along the side. Its growing, growing growing, like a dark hole of loveless light. It has no eyes, nothing to give it meaning, but Sanji can tell it’s watching them.

As it grows bigger, so does its effort to fight against Luffy’s will. It can’t beat it, but his captain has to put in quite a bit of effort. Zoro and Sanji start taking up more of the fight as Luffy keeps his will extended, drawing back to protect _his_ crew.

Sanji lets fire fly, and leaves it to Zoro to tell their captain to stop with the haki for a moment.

“If we know it’s there, we can’t be tricked anymore.”

Luffy nods, preps a King Kong Gun, and drops his haki as he unleashes a ground shattering attack.

The island _shudders_ as if its hurt but the shadows don’t stop running. Sanji’s haki is fine.

_Good._

_It’s time to show **this** island what it means to be **afraid.**_

-

The island is a lot smaller now without the shadows. The cliffsides that Zoro climbed are no more than perhaps five stories tall – he could have jumped that, if he wanted to, and not climbed down. The jungle is no more than a mile, and the shore is clearly visible.

The island is a _fake_ and Zoro can’t believe he fell for it.

The laughter stops as they reach the center. The sky’s bright and no fog covers the sea– the island itself is entirely razed to the ground by the force of their attacks.

The black hole like thing that sucked all the shadows in is nowhere to be found.

Instead, the child that Zoro had met before is standing in the center, looking like a glitch in reality. Light does not bend around him, like a painting without depth or reality. He’s there, standing over some pit in the ground, glaring with silver eyes. Blood drips from his mouth and his fists, scrapes across his knees.

The shit cook starts as if he too recognizes the brat. And since Sanji had Luffy’s hat he probably did meet him.

But Luffy…

Luffy freezes, and lets go entirely of the haki of the conquering king. (Zoro had thought he already dropped it. Guess he just made it so that Sanji and Zoro couldn’t feel it, which _damnit_ _Luffy_ that wasn’t the point of stopping it!)

“Ace?” Luffy whispers softly, sounding confused, and Zoro has never wanted to destroy anything more than he has in this moment.

“Luffy,” The brat – _Ace,_ is this how that polite man looked as a child? Angry and lost? – says stepping forward. Zoro unleashes his anger at the surrounding area, which is _shifting_ , and realizes the shadows have changed again. They have condensed into this _caricature_ of their captain’s dead big brother, and melded to the environment, changing it from barren island to warring battlefield.

Zoro recognizes it from newspapers.

_Marineford._

It ripples with every sword slice, shadows tearing apart and reconnecting and recoloring, but nothing can be as terrible as this war scene. Bodies strewn about, ice and fire glinting in the light.

The sky, so clear a moment ago, is dark. Zoro feels wrong-footed, and hearing the cook shift next to him, knows Sanji feels the same. _What’s real? What isn’t How can we fight this? What are its weak points?_

Luffy, before them, hasn’t moved.

“Hehehe!” Ace says, laughing, that laugh that has followed them through the island and laughed at their peril. “Little Brother, you can’t win here. No one can. So many people have fallen already, given their soul to—”

“I don’t care.” Luffy says, and there is ice in his tone. His will, his haki, grows, from when it paused at the sight of his brother. Zoro bares his teeth, and watches as the shadows step back. “I’m going to be King of the Pirates. I don’t have time for shadow guys again who like to hurt my crew. You aren’t Ace. This isn’t Marineford. So _shut up._ ”

His voice reverberates throughout the valley. Luffy has always told people to get out of the way, to shut up or fight him, and this is no different. And Luffy rarely doesn’t get his way, because Luffy fights for want he wants.

(That, or the universe falls to his whims.)

This _fake_ Ace takes a step back at Luffy’s indomitable spirit, then another. Sanji and Zoro as one step forward and attack the shadows around them, taking the mirage of their captain’s worst nightmare away from him.

(Though, hopefully he hadn’t noticed.)

It’s not enough, as the living island realizes it can’t beat them this way and _grows._

Freckled skin turns into scars and a tank top stretches into a marine jacket and flowered shirt. A cigar is bitten between gritted teeth as the figure grows and grows and grows. Blood boils and melts and solidifies into lava as _Akainu_ stands tall in the center of the valley.

“Yeah, boy? Aren’t you scared now?” And Zoro hasn’t seen Akainu before or heard him, but he hates him already. He may just be a mirage, but it’s enough. “Big brother isn’t here to protect you

“Yeah. He isn’t.” And Luffy, without flinching or with a drop of terror, lunges forward in Gear Four.

“I can protect myself now.”

The island splinters as the attack hits, and Zoro knows no fear.

_Fight,_ his captain says without speaking, and Zoro fights.

-

Akainu is here, and the last time Luffy saw him was when he was pulling his hand Ace’s chest. He’s not scared of him now, though he guesses the island thought he would.

Dead brothers, and war, and lost crew.

Luffy has already faced them. This _island_ can’t throw them back at his face again. He might have despaired for his crew, but they are here now. The past doesn’t matter.

What _matters_ is making sure his crew comes out _alive_ wherever they are.

This is just training for when Luffy finally takes down Akainu.

He won’t lose. He isn’t scared.

Luffy attacks, and the battlefield erupts into dust.

-

Time flows differently on the Grand Line. Islands shift in and out of storms and fog, from one century to the next. Some theorize that Raftel is one such island, drifting between the shores one era and the next.

(In some way it is.)

It should come to no surprise that when an island _falls_ it is as if it was never there at all. The sea is as unforgiving as it is beautiful, and time does not care for any rules but its own.

Luffy fights the _will_ of the island for what seems like days. Zoro and Sanji whirling in action beside him, fighting back to back and arm to arm, never letting each other fall. Akainu – the island- falls to ruin with every cut and punch and kick.

Akainu falls, slowly, but surely, over the pit he came from.

A final _Gum Gum Pistol_ and Ace is on the ground, bleeding out. One last trick to play.

But Luffy, nor any of the Straw Hats, like to dwell on the past on their own accord. A force of conquerors haki, and the island crumbles into a small stretch of rock and sand. No valleys or mountains around it.

The hole, the pit of darkness that the shadows came from, is all that remains. In it, a single skeleton, not singing or drinking tea. An unkept sword rests in its grip, wreathed in shadow.

Zoro ignores it, and they all ignore the skeleton.

When they look up, it is night, not sunny nor foggy. Endless stretches of stars, so familiar in the Grand Line, scatter the sky.

Luffy looks up and places a hand on his hat.

Terror does not pump through his veins, nor does horror or despair or grief. Only acceptance, and the feeling of an adventure completed.

Tiredness creeps in after.

“Let’s go home, guys.” He says, turning toward to the Sunny docked in the small bay that the sand and rocks create. The glistening black rocks of shadow, once used to attack and trap

They go home.

(behind them, as they set foot on the Sunny, the island sinks into the sea. Water fills the pit and the sword is swallowed up by the ocean’s force. Shadows seem to leak from it, fleeing into the sea like freedom flies to the wind. In a moment, it is gone, like rocks and sand and trees never existed.

The Peninsula of Drifting Fog, once part of a continent that has since fallen to the ocean floor, is no more.)

-

Luffy wakes to Nami screaming in his ear.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!? WHERES THE ISLAND? WHY’S THE ANCHOR IN THE WATER!? WHY ARE YOU ALL BEAT UP!?” She’s standing in front of him as he is sitting on deck, but despite her words her actions as she moves to help him sit and look at his wounds are gentle.

Luffy’s just glad to see she’s okay, and ignoring the multiple scratches and burns scattered about his arm, catches her in a rubbery hug. “Shishishi! Nami!” Spotting the rest of his crew looking at them on neck, he stretches to include them in the hug as well. “Usopp! Chopper! Robin! Franky! Brook!!”

He doesn’t let them go, feeling that frenzied, awful feeling fade away, until Sanji and Zoro wake up and attract the attention of the crew, who scramble for them as well.

They had fallen asleep in a huddle by the mast, too tired to make it to their quarters.

It was the first restful sleep Luffy had had in a while but he still feels drowsiness in his veins.

But he’s not alone now, and his crew isn’t dead.

He can breathe again, without anger or despair coating his lungs.

He can live.

-

Sanji is the one to explain to the others what happened, in a brisk sort of manner. Luffy and Zoro are never ones to ask _what happened,_ only _what are you going to do_. Sanji’s the odd one out in that regard.

_An island, a living island,_ he tells them, _with a cursed sword for a heart_. Nami writes in down, in the log, in the passage she titled _Drifting Fog Peninsula._ There’s a space marked in her map for it as well, in colors of blue and gold, to show that it has been destroyed by the Straw Hat Pirates and is now sinking under the sea. 

(There’s guilt in her shoulders, for being too tired to mention the legend last night. It had truly been only a night, the island fucking with their perception of time, instead of the weeks it felt like.)

_It targeted us, because we could sense it. Probably would have gone on to you next. It tried to keep Luffy down a lot, because of his Conqueror’s Haki._ He tries to avoid what it used to _attack_ but his crewmates aren’t dumb. They know it takes more than fire and attacks to bring down Luffy, knows something went on when Sanji’s is more frantic in the kitchen and Zoro naps near the bottom of the stairs and Luffy can’t go without clinging to someone for more than fifteen minutes. _It used fears._

He doesn’t say what kind, doesn’t know what the others faced, and it certainly isn’t his right to tell them that Luffy saw his brother die _again_ (and who knows how many times before, when he was alone,) and fought the man who killed him.

_We figured it out, in the end, what was causing it, and Luffy used his haki so we could all get a clear head. It was easy on out from there._

He doesn’t mention burns, or the way Luffy hadn’t cried. The way Zoro looked distant and agree and the way Sanji couldn’t stop shaking when they got on the ship.

They don’t need to know, though he does trust them.

They’re _crew. Family_.

Somethings you just hold close to your chest, that’s all.

-

Two nights away from the island, however, Sanji still can’t sleep without nightmares.

Each time he awakes, however, paranoia drives him to he use his observation haki to see if it’s just his regular brain fucking with him, or shadow brains.

It doesn’t particularly matter. Zoro and Luffy are in the same boat. They all keep quiet about it, and so do their crewmates.

The past is the past on this ship of dreams, and the future is only ever King or Dead. The present is all that matters.

And presently, Sanji finds himself as he was nearly a week ago, and every night since they have been back, stumbling, bleary eyed and shaking, into the kitchen with Zoro and Luffy on the floor.

He doesn’t speak, only whips up some cinnamon tea and a light snack, and unhesitatingly curling next to Luffy, who quickly links their arms as he was doing with Zoro beside him.

Luffy’s eyes are red, Sanji notes, but there’s an ease to his shoulders now that both Sanji and Zoro are here. Seeing his crew, his captain, eat, is also doing wonders for Sanji’s nerves.

Zoro’s tense, but in the way he usually is – almost entirely relaxed but ready to protect his crew if need be.

In a moment, they find their way to the aquarium with a blanket and little conversation other than a whispered _Shishi!_ as Zoro and Sanji fight over opposite ends of the blanket.

They sleep then, huddled in a pile, nightmares frightened away. The next night they will rejoin the crew in the sleeping quarters, crewmates finding their way into bunks not their own, but for now…

They sleep, undisturbed, in the quiet of their home.

No nightmares, no shaking hands or tense shoulders, can find them here, with a warm drink between their hands

**Author's Note:**

> For Anon who requested: **The straw hat crew (or just some of them) face a Boggart-like creature (in the original OP world)..?**
> 
> Surprise! The boggart is the island! Kept the prompt at the end for suspense purposes
> 
> I chose the monster trio for this one, because I felt their fears were of a similar sort that i could combine them, and their fears (barring Sanji) aren't really obvious in canon. Okay, I guess Luffy's is but like... idk./
> 
> Anyway! So Sanji's fear was the rock, his exfamily, starving his crew, bugs, and the mask. Luffy was everyone dying and being left alone. Zoro's, a lot harder to decide, was the crew falling to their deaths and him failing to protect his captain and the crews dreams. 
> 
> This is the biggest one shot i have ever written! pretty proud! Was a monster to write tho lol.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! I actually proofread this one, but if you spot any mistakes (such as mispellings, etxra words that would not be there for literary effect, etc) please tell me! And if you think this needs extra warnings as well, tell me! I tried to cover everything.
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> \- Whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


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